Over the past year, CNT has interviewed Cook County residents who have experienced flooding. Several of them have shared their stories with CNT. Overall the estimated cost of damage and repairs ranged from $1,000 to $330,000. Here are some of their stories:

Gregory Ehrendreich owns a unit in a condo building in the northwest side and has had problems with basement flooding. “Flooding has damaged the basement unit (currently being rented out by its owners who have moved out of the building) as well as causing sump-pump failures requiring repair of one and replacement of the other” he said. Michelle Gilliam’s home has flooded three times in the last five years. She estimates that the flooding has cost her more than $15,000 in damages to her home and another $30,000 in lost wages and lost valuables.

Mark Nilson wants to protect his home from flood damage. “We saw evidence of small foundational leaks while going through our “walk through” before purchase of our home. We want to know now what we can do to prevent an event” he said. Diane Tecic is a new resident in her building. She hasn’t experienced flooding yet, but she knows her neighbors have and her residence shows signs of past flood damage.

Scott DeBlaze has had issues with flooding three times in the last five years. “The basement sewer lines back up and flood the basement. We now have everything in plastic tubs off the ground to protect against this” he reports. Christopher Kowal lost the use of part of the property he rents and spent hours cleaning up damage from flooding, which has affected his home five times in the last five years.

Glen Szczypka lives in a 1920s bungalow and has dealt with flooding 15 times in the last five years. He estimates that flooding has caused about $2,000 in damage to his property and is saving up to install a $6,000 overhead sewer system. Carmen Vidal-Hallett disconnected her downspout and installed a rain garden to prevent flooding in her home. She also installed a one-way valve on the main sewer pipe in the basement and deconstructed the original concrete side walkway into permeable pavers.

During the July 2011 hundred-year storm, Peter Robinson’s family lost carpeting, drywall and bathroom vanity as well as some furniture. “We had installed a sump pump years ago and that could not even stop summer 2011’s flooding. It seems like several neighbors have back flow valves now that have helped them and hurt us. Not sure how that is legal,” he said. Jeremiah Boland works at a nonprofit organization on the southwest side of Chicago. He says flooding has caused “significant damage to our historic building. Nothing seems to help. We have undertaken many projects to deal with it without much success.”

If you have experience flooding and would like to share your story with us, please fill out this survey. Your story will give us the data we need to make the case for action.

Staff member, Danielle Gallet—who heads up the Water Supply Program—will be representing CNT’s work on water-loss control at WaterCon 2013, the Midwest’s largest water and wastewater conference. Danielle currently serves as Chair of the Water Efficiency Committee for the IL Section of the American Water Works Association (AWWA), and sits on the national committees of AWWA’s Water Resources Planning and Management Committee, and their Water Loss Control Committee.

Hal Sprague, who oversees CNT’s water policy, is serving on the national stormwater committee of the Water Environment Federation, as well as the Post Development Stormwater Runoff Standard (PDSWRS) Work Group of the IL Environment Protection Agency. In August 2013, Hal will be presenting CNT’s work on green infrastructure retrofit standards at the American Public Works Association International Public Works Congress & Exposition.

Ryan Wilson, Stormwater Program Manager, will also be presenting at the conference, with a focus on ‘Collaborating to Retrofit Communities for 21st Century Weather’.

Launched in 2012, the goal of Smart Water for Smart Regions is to help communities in the eight Great Lakes states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin) deliver water services to homes and businesses more efficiently, effectively, and transparently, while sustaining the region’s water resources.  The initiative is funded by State Farm, the Surdna Foundation and Joyce Foundation.

Learn more about ‘Smart Water for Smart Regions’ here.>>

“Photo Credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video/Flickr Creative Commons”

The insurance company, State Farm, has renewed its support for CNT’s “Smart Water for Smart Regions” initiative.

State Farm was a core supporter of the initiative in 2012, along with the Joyce Foundation and Surdna Foundation. Funding is being used to help communities develop strategies to alleviate costly water leakages, as well as property damage from flooding. Organizational supporters include the American Water Works Association, Water Environment Federation, Alliance for Water Efficiency, and the Great Lakes Commission.

“State Farm’s leadership in this pioneering Great Lakes initiative is greatly appreciated” says Kathy Tholin, CNT’s CEO. Launched in 2012, the goal of “Smart Water for Smart Regions” is to help communities in the eight Great Lakes states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin) deliver water services to homes and businesses more efficiently, effectively, and transparently, while sustaining the region’s water resources.

For further information contact Harriet Festing, Director, CNT’s water program.

Since the Governor has ordered that this money should be invested in local and regional projects through the State Revolving Loan Funds, now is a perfect time for local governments and counties to apply for low interest loans (1.93%) for their water supply and stormwater projects that will prevent leaks, improve water quality and reduce urban flooding.

On the stormwater side, Illinois EPA, which administers the loans, is specifically interested in applications for stormwater projects that cost-effectively reduce pollution, such as with green infrastructure projects that use infiltration, evapotranspiration and collection of stormwater for reuse. March 31, 2013 is the deadline for filing “pre-applications” for loan funding in the next fiscal year, beginning October 1, 2013.  Information on how to apply for these low interest loans for drinking water, wastewater and stormwater projects can be found on the IEPA’s website.

Because stormwater projects have only recently become eligible for loans, the forms on the IEPA website do not yet reflect the changes. IEPA requests that applicants contact them directly to discuss their pre-applications.

CNT’s research on urban flooding reveals the magnitude of the damage to homes and properties as a result of poor stormwater infrastructure. Thousands of Illinois homes and businesses are affected each year by property flooding.  The results—sewer backups, basement seepage, property damage and street ponding —collectively cost residents and businesses millions of dollars annually.

Communities attempting to comply with federal stormwater management and pollution prevention requirements have traditionally received little or no financial assistance, whereas wastewater and water supply utilities have been eligible for the low interest loans provided by the revolving funds for several decades.

The $1Billion Initiative is expected to create 28,500 jobs annually, protect public health, and drive community and business growth across Illinois.

For more information, contact Hal Sprague, Manager of Water Policy.

As communities continue to grapple with budget shortfalls, mounting water infrastructure needs and overwhelming stormwater pollution problems, we need to ensure we are making the best water infrastructure investment decisions and utilizing funds the most efficiently.

Based-off lessons learned during an IRP pilot project CNT and its partners conducted in 2011, CNT has created a succinct 10-step guide for communities in how to implement IRP in their community. This how-to fact sheet can help guide any community in how to move toward a more sustainable approach to water resource planning and management. IRP is a holistic planning approach that can help improve water service efficiency, which helps conserve water resources, reduces costs and bolsters community prosperity and vitality.

See if this innovative approach to water management is right for your community:
“Implementing Integrated Water Resource Planning in Your Community”
This 10-Step Guide can help your community as it moves towards more sustainable water planning.
Download » (474 kb) – Fact Sheet

For more information about CNTs integrated water resource planning work including a white paper and a final recommendations report from a pilot project, click here.

Polluted stormwater is one of the greatest challenges we have to clean drinking water and surface waters in the Unites States. In highly urbanized environments, more than 90% of rainwater may run off impervious surfaces and enter sewer systems.  When the combination of sewage and runoff exceeds the stormwater system’s capacity, untreated raw sewage discharges directly to surface streams resulting in Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) or Separated Sewer overflows (SSOs).  Cities in at least 32 states are affected, with older communities in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions some of the most affected.

Retrofitting cities with green Infrastructure can be a cost-effective, flexible, and environmentally-sound strategy to manage stormwater runoff as a resource and reduce overflows from sewer systems. An increasing number of cities across the Great Lakes and nationally are making multi-million dollar investments in green infrastructure as part of their long term control plans for managing CSOs and, at the same time, reducing local flooding.

However, the current lack of a common methodology means that implementation can sometimes be adhoc, lacking a systematic approach. This new guide illustrates the use of a “Green Infrastructure Portfolio Standard”, which provides a pathway for cities to establish feasible annual retrofit goals, meet these goals with a simple methodology and demonstrate progress over the course of multiple years.  The Guide provides examples from pilot retrofit programs in two major Midwest cities, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Grand Rapids, Michigan that have shown tremendous success using this approach.

Download the guide here ››
More information on CNT’s Green Infrastructure Portfolio Standard program here ››

Community members work together to make room for the Bowman Community Garden.

Volunteers working together—children and adults pushing wheel-barrows and carrying shovels—bring the words care, community, and cooperation to mind. Thanks to the support from the Prince Charitable Trusts, CNT helped create three new neighborhood open spaces. Each of our community partners—the Albany Park Community Center, Bowmanville Community Organization, and the United Church of Rogers Park—brought local volunteers together with CNT to reduce urban flooding in their neighborhood. The result: accessible community open spaces that reduce stormwater run-off in backyards and basements, and engage community members through hands-on participation.

By carefully selecting neighborhood spaces with high visibility—a prominent community garden and the street-side yards of the church and community center— and enlisting the help of local volunteers through community newsletters and local organization, we were able to promote tangible solutions to urban flooding that go beyond traditional ‘grey’ infrastructure approaches. These low-cost solutions, suitable for homes, business and public spaces, are typically fast and easy to install. Sometimes, the easiest fix involves little more than disconnecting a downspout and redirecting the runoff to a new rain garden.

The impact of small-scale solutions that educate while solving a problem go way beyond the immediate projects. By engaging directly with community members, we are tapping into existing networks of motivated community residents whose collective actions can address the issue of urban flooding at the city-level to improve quality-of-life for all city residents. That’s our ambition. Thanks to renewed funding from the Prince Charitable Trusts, we’re aiming for even larger neighborhood blitz events in 2013, with intensive activity where property owners and volunteers work together to install flood protection measures and green gardens in multiple homes, businesses and public spaces. From grey to green means more care, more cooperation and more community-building!

Members of the public have until November 30, 2012 to provide comments on draft recommendations for state-wide stormwater standards in Illinois. Comments should be submitted directly to:

Association of Illinois Soil & Water Conservation Districts
ATTN: Kelly Thompson
4285 North Walnut Street Road
Springfield, IL  62707

These standards are very important to improving water quality and reducing urban flooding in Illinois. Furthermore, they favor a cost-effective, green infrastructure, approach to development and redevelopment that should save developers and local governments money. Several urban counties and municipalities in Illinois have already adopted standards that are similar to the recommended standards, but these state-wide standards will ensure that stormwater management goals are consistent everywhere in the state.

In October 2012, the Workgroup conducted two public meetings, in Springfield and Aurora, where it explained the draft recommendations. You can read the recommendations here.

Learn more about the Workgroup’s activities here.

For more information, please contact Hal Sprague, Manager of Water Policy, at 773-269-4046 or hal@cnt.org.

The parking lot at Our Lady Gate of Heaven Church (about 20 miles south of Chicago) had frequently been filled with up to two feet of water after large storms. Now instead of remaining flooded for about three days, the bioswale soaks up rainwater and the lot is usable within a day.

A week after Sandy, another storm is brewing along the U.S. East Coast bringing more rain and flooding to communities that are still struggling to recover. As mass evacuations are ordered, we are reminded of the obvious: nature knows no boundaries when it comes to flooding. Every property owner is at risk.

The statement may seem obvious now, and yet it is so easy to forget. Here in Chicago, the region was pummeled by Hurricane Ike in 2008, with severe storms and flooding in July 2010 and then again in July 2011. Damage is not restricted to cataclysmic events—CNT’s interviews with property owners tell a tragic story of ongoing damage when it rains. Elizabeth Rafferty’s South Side Chicago home has flooded four times in the last two years; flood damage to Jim Vinci’s home in Des Plaines cost him $150,000; and Darlene Crawford estimates that she’s been flooded around 30 times in the last four decades. People told us of the stress they suffer whenever it rains; of days off work, and of the problems tackling mold and dampness.

Chicagoland property owners are not alone. Our recent survey of major cities across the eight Great Lake states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) indicates that most municipalities characterize the risk of flooding as ‘medium’ or ‘high’. Stormwater is flooding into people’s backyards, streets, and parking lots (90 percent of respondents said); into the interior of buildings through sewer backups (83.3 percent); and through the walls of homes and buildings (46.7 percent). The risks are set to increase. Research suggests that Midwestern states have experienced a 31% increase in very heavy precipitation events between 1958 and 2007, and this trend is expected to continue.

Given the very real costs of severe weather events, it is remarkable how incapable we are at preparing for them. Only 53.3 percent of the respondents to our Great Lakes survey have a plan for dealing with property flooding. Even fewer have a system in place for tracking the plan’s success or failure. The situation parallels the public’s lack of preparation for flooding.  Even in designated floodplains, property owners often lack flood insurance. Research on attitudes toward flooding suggests that the public massively underestimates the risks they face and believe that, by and large, it is government’s role to protect them.

How does this affect public investment in flood protection measures? Research indicates that the way we engage the public in these discussions matters. Messages should be locally relevant, explaining the cost to communities of ‘no-action’. And preparedness should demonstrate how neighbors acting together can help reduce the impact of flooding. The role of communities is clear: people learn from and follow the actions of their neighbors.

The lesson is relevant to our own work. In Cook County, IL, CNT is working with several communities to map the cost and risks to property owners of urban flooding, and to develop neighborhood solutions. Listen to CNT’s President Scott Bernstein talk about Chicago’s vulnerability to flooding and its infrastructural challenges on WBEZ’s Morning Shift.

CNT’s flood alleviation initiative is funded by the Surdna Foundation, State Farm, the Joyce Foundation, Grand Victoria Foundation, and Prince Charitable Trusts. For further information contact Harriet Festing at hfesting@cnt.org or visit http://www.cnt.org/water/.

The neighbors’ rain garden straddles their front yards and serves both homes.

On a quiet tree-lined street in Rogers Park, two neighboring households have devised an elegant way to manage stormwater – they built a shared front yard rain garden watered by its own “river.”

Rob Hansen and Kristi Piccolo live next door to Richard and Ami Herzon. After responding to the CNT’s flood reduction survey and visiting with a CNT auditor, both families decided to reduce the threat of flooding by directing roof runoff water away from their single family homes. They also wanted to keep their yards free of standing water.

Over the course of two weekends earlier this summer, Rob and Kristi and Richard and Ami worked together to curtail neighborhood flooding and keep polluted water out of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. As a bonus, they now have a lushly decorated yard.

The four installed a shared rain garden that overlaps their two properties. The 90-square-foot rain garden is fed by what the couples jokingly call a river. It is a lined channel between their two homes that collects roof runoff from the buildings’ disconnected gutter downspouts and delivers it to the garden.

Heart-shaped, bordered with stone and lush with greenery and flowers, the rain garden looks like decorative landscaping. But it is also entirely functional.

“It absorbs water really well,” Ami said. “We have not seen any pooling.”

Rain gardens are a low tech, inexpensive way to manage stormwater. Find a suitable spot, often a place where water naturally gathers, dig a shallow depression in the earth and plant shrubs and grasses. Water that otherwise would end up heading to a sewage treatment plant – or worse, a river, lake or someone’s basement – instead percolates into the earth, recharging groundwater supplies. Some people install rain gardens to divert water away from their home’s basement. Others install them mainly for environmental reasons. Excess stormwater can overwhelm the Chicago region’s sewage system, leading to the discharge of untreated wastewater into the Chicago River and Lake Michigan.

“We have the good fortune to live next to abundant fresh water,” Rob said. “There is no reason every piece of land in the city couldn’t manage its water to some degree.”

The two couples’ ingenuity has not gone unnoticed. They said that neighbors often comment about the rain garden. “It is always positive,” Richard said. “Always.”

If you have problems with flooding or sewer backups – or simply want to help preserve the environment – please take the first steps to seeking assistance from CNT by looking at our Wetrofit and Sustainable Backyards programs and completing our flooding survey. Wetrofit uses simple techniques such as disconnecting downspouts and installing rain barrels to resolve stormwater problems. Sustainable Backyards offers rebates of  50 percent on local purchases of trees (up to $100 rebate), native plants (up to $60 rebate), compost bins (up to $50 rebate), and rain barrels (up to $40 rebate).

For more information, contact Ryan Wilson at CNT (773) 328-7014 or email susby@cnt.org.